The comedy world is rallying around a fellow stand-up who almost died after perforating her intestine.

Katerina Vrana was paralysed from the neck down, went blind and struggled to speak after her initial condition led to septicaemia and septic shock.

Now the comedy industry, led by London’s Angel Comedy, is trying to raise £25,000 to help with her rehabilitation.

Vrana, a  Greek comic based in London, became ill after making the top three of the Laugh Factory's International Stand-Up competition to find ‘the funniest person in the world’. 

As part of the contest she was invited to Malaysia to perform in April 2017, but while there it she came down with what she thought was food poisoning – but which turned out to be the intestinal perforation.

She was in a critical condition and spent two months in the intensive care unit in Malaysia, and nearly died three times.  

The road to recovery has been slow, and has been repeatedly hospitalised in the UK and in Greece for specialist treatment. She now needs full-time care and intensive daily physiotherapy. 

She has two nurses and has had to move back in with her parents and has just returned from spending a month in a specialist neurological rehab clinic in Switzerland, which made a significant difference.

Vrana can now stand and walk with assistance and her sight and speech are  improving. And earlier this year she was able to get on stage in Greece and deliver a TEDx talk about her condition. She has performed it several times since as a theatre show, giving her income for day-to-day living.

However her medical insurance does not cover long-term rehabilitation, which is why the Just Giving page was set up, and has raised more than £1,000 towards its target today alone.